Daniel Brown

For Bernie Williams, grabbing a bat was easy. He would pull out the same trusty 34 1/2-inch, 33-ounce Rawlings model for all occasions during his career, whether that was in spring training or the playoffs, whether he was facing a flamethrower or a knuckleballer. Music, however, is different. Advertisement “Choosing a guitar is about the gig,’’ Williams said. “It’s about the sound that you want to create, and it’s about the music that you’re going to play. You need the right instrument with the…

SONOMA, Calif. — There were no radar guns in Art Schallock’s day, and even if there were, the soft-throwing lefty knows he would have barely registered a blip. At 5-foot-9, 155 pounds, the pitcher got by on guile. “I was sneaky,’’ Schallock said Monday. But now, at very long last, the crafty lefty is about to hit triple-digits. Schallock turns 100 this month, a milestone day for the oldest living former Major League Baseball player. Advertisement And here inside this senior living center, where…

Matt Cain was an old soul even in his prime, punching 200 innings like a timecard just as that milestone began fading from the game. So it makes sense that a pivotal moment of Cain’s career goes back to another bygone relic. Remember newspaper want-ads? The Memphis Commercial Appeal published a life-altering one almost 30 years ago, a few lines tucked way back there between the sports section and the Sunday funnies. It was an ad from a former pitcher offering individual coaching sessions: $20 f…

SAN FRANCISCO — is still here, having eluded trade talk long enough to emerge as a reliably dynamic force for the . His timely emergence owes a debt to a quick-witted, hyperverbal former G League player who made a lousy first impression. “I’m going to keep it real: I didn’t like A.V. when I first met him,’’ Kuminga said. “I thought he was a guy who was: ‘I love to talk. I just want to speak.’” There’s some truth in that scouting report. Anthony Vereen, in his second year as an assistant coach o…

When it was over, after Clifford Ray had scrubbed his hands long enough to wash away the smell of dolphin innards, he took a limo back to San Francisco International Airport and plopped into a first-class seat. The center was so distracted by the chaos of the previous few hours that he barely noticed the woman next to him. At least not until she spoke. Advertisement “So you’re the one we’ve been waiting for,’’ the woman said. That’s when the center, amid one doozy of a day, swiveled his head t…

Randy White planned to be in grandfather mode by now. The longtime star envisioned spending his senior years doing some spoiling, cracking some corny jokes and maybe drifting off in a recliner. The good stuff. Instead, in the wake of a family member’s fatal overdose, White has a hands-on role assisting his grieving daughter, Jordan, in raising her 5-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son. Advertisement “I wanted to be Paw-Paw,” White, 70, said. “I didn’t want to be Dad.” Jesse Dempsey, his son-i…

Like Sir Isaac Newton a few centuries earlier, Karlin Oei owes the transformative moment of his life to a bonk on the head. For Newton, it was an apple. For Oei, it was the open hand of his annoyed mother. “I’m watching ‘Inception,’ one of my favorite movies, and she slapped me on the back of the head,’’ the Sugar Land, Texas, native recalled. “She’s like, ‘Why are you watching this silly movie? You should be practicing. You should be playing. You should be training.’” Advertisement Oei, like Ne…

One of Zhuo Ding’s nicknames around League of Legends is “Golden Left Hand,” and he will need every ounce of that shimmering fist this weekend to land the knockout punch against his idol. Zhuo, better known in the gaming world as “Knight,” is on the esports scene. He has long admired “Faker” (real name Lee Sang-hyeok), and for good reason. Faker, the superstar mid laner for juggernaut T1, has been called and enters Sunday’s League of Legends World Championship (LoL Worlds) semifinal round in p…

There’s a banking executive in Georgetown, Texas, who likes to play the popular online game . The trivia challenge tests a baseball fan’s knowledge of player connections and, as with golf, the goal is to get a low score. Obscure players are prized over famous ones. This banker’s advantage is that he can sometimes type in his own name. Advertisement “When I use myself,” , 45, said, “my Rarity Score is super low.’’ But the former infielder’s anonymity took a hit this week when baseball’s internet…

SAN FRANCISCO — Kim Trinidad’s previous jobs include hyping up ice cream for Dreyer’s and pushing music for Pandora, so she’s accustomed to peddling sunshine for a living. But no “work” shift for Trinidad is ever more fun than when the marketing team meets to brainstorm ideas for the next bobblehead. Advertisement Things can get weird. Previous ideas include Kayak Klay, Surfer Klay and Captain Klay. “Klay has more moods than I can count, and at this point, we have barely touched the surface of…